Regeni ears clipped, cuts all over body

Egypt denies security forces had part in murder

(ANSA) - Rome, February 8 - As Egypt on Monday denied its
security forces had any hand in the murder of Giulio Regeni, it
emerged Monday that the Italian student's body was found with
both its ears clipped and cuts all over the corpse.
Regeni had the tops of both his ears clipped off during the
torture that preceded his death, investigative sources told
ANSA.
The body showed dozens of "little cuts", including on
the soles of his feet, they said.
One of Regeni's fingernails had been torn out along with
one of his toenails.
"There are marks of small cuts all over the body," the
sources said, "on both the front and back".
Among various bones broken were his collarbones, they said.
Regeni, 28, a Cambridge PhD student and visiting scholar at
the American University in Cairo, was found in a ditch outside
Cairo last Wednesday night, over a week after disappearing on
January 25, the anniversary of the uprising that led to Hosni
Mubarak's ouster.
He was killed by a final blow that broke his neck.
Egyptian security forces were not involved in Regeni's
death, Interior Minister Magdi Abdel Ghaffar told a press
conference Monday.
"We refute all the accusations and allusions on an
involvement by the security (forces)," he said.
He said "all parts of our apparatus are largely focused on
solving this case".
Ghaffar said that "we have repeatedly confirmed that
Mr Regeni was not imprisoned by any Egyptian authority".
Ghaffar said that "we are absolutely not treating Regeni
as a spy but as if he were an Egyptian."
He said Regeni's murder was "a criminal act".
Regeni's body was found by a taxi driver whose vehicle
had broken down, General Ghaffar told the press conference.
"The body was found on the Hazem Hassan motorway bridge" in
the desert between Cairo and Alessandria, he said.
The tax driver and his passengers "discovered the body when
they were getting out of the taxi to see what was wrong," the
general said.
Meawnhile friends of Regeni, questioned by Italian
investigators, said he was not very strongly politically engaged
and all his contacts were made with the aim of writing his
Cambridge doctoral thesis.
"He was just doing the work of a researcher," they
reportedly said.
Regeni's work on trade unions - on which he had written
under a pseudonym for Rome daily il manifesto - had prompted
reports he had been meeting political activists.
His parents, meanwhile, said he had not voiced any fears
for his safety, an assertion that clashed with earlier reports.
Egyptian Ambassador to Italy Amr Helmy told ANSA that
"unjustified insinuations without evidence" should be avoided in
Regeni's murder.
"It would be opportune not to arrive at hasty conclusions
related to the ongoing probe," he said, adding that an
eight-strong Italian investigative team had had "important
meetings with their Egyptian counterparts".
Amr said the aim of these meetings "is to uncover the
dynamics of the Italian student's death and identify and punish
the real culprits of this atrocious crime".
According to the New York Times Sunday, the US will likely
bring up Refeni's murder in meetings with Egyptian officials
this week.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry meets US
Secretary of State John Kerry in Washington, while Sarah B.
Sewall, the State Department's top human rights official,
travels to Cairo.
The case "(is) seen...as another alarming sign...in a
country where arbitrary detention and torture have become
increasingly common," the paper wrote.
Last August during a visit by Kerry to Cairo US officials
criticised the human rights situation in the country under
president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the New York Times said.
Despite this, the administration of US president Barack
Obama continues to pay out 1.3 billion dollars a year in
military aid to Egypt, partly due to its strategic importance in
the region, the paper wrote.
The US State Department on Monday offered its "deepest
condolences to the family and friends" of Regeni but refused to
comment on media reports that the case might come up in talks
with Egyptian officials later this week.
"We observe that official investigations into Regeni's
murder are underway with the participation of Italian
investigators," a US State Department spokesman said.